How a novel cave bacterium challenges our understanding of multicellularity evolution
By
Georgy Kurakin
Toasted golden, schmeared with insight. Top of the rack.
Summary
This article explores the evolution of multicellularity through the lens of a novel cave bacterium, Jeongeupia sacculi, which challenges existing classification frameworks. The author, an evolutionary bioinformatician, explains the two main types of multicellularity (clonal and aggregative) and discusses how this new discovery blurs the boundaries between them, potentially redefining our understanding of multicellular behavior in bacteria.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledFor a guy who loves nature, you'd think he'd be more into animals. When they have more than one cell, Jack sort of loses interest. ("Nim's Island")
We know two main types of multicellularity which until recently were enough to classify all bacterial multicellular-like behaviours. But a novel cave bacterium — Jeongeupia sacculi — is a discovery which goes beyond this framework and urges to redefine multicellularity
It is a fascinating topic which would need an entire book to explain (and maybe, I will even write such a book).
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